It may be a bit shocking to people who know how important music is to me …. but for years I have spent the vast majority of my time in the car listening not to music but to speaking – either NPR or certain programs on WGN (before their new management ruined the station) or disks of some of my favorite Morning Show interviews. But I’ve listened rather little to music, in part because it tended to distract me and also because if I listened to something truly thrilling, my pleasure would manifest itself in my foot to the accelerator and before I knew it I’d be speeding down the highway at 85 miles an hour. It was just safer for me to avoid listening to music when behind the wheel, or limit my listening to art song disks I needed to review for the Journal of Singing. But now that I’m driving the red car with Sirius XM, I have been powerfully reminded that driving and music belong together and that nothing makes the miles or minutes melt away like Great Music. So for my latest trip to Iowa, I took the time to burn a disk of rather random favorites off of iTunes – although when my list was done, I realized that I’d amassed 114 minutes of music… 34 minutes too much for a single disk! Only after some rapid un-clicking did I end up with this final playlist, which served me well in the many hours I spent driving on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday …. Looking at the list now, I’m struck by what a mixed bag it is, with (of course) a preponderance of opera. In fact, that’s how the playlist starts:
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1) Martina Arroyo, singing “Tacea la notte” from Verdi’s Il Trovatore, on the farewell gala for Sir Rudolf Bing at the Met, 1972. If your’e not an opera fan, than none of that means diddley squat to you – but believe me when I say that Martina Arroyo’s voice was poured out of her like molten gold, and especially on this important occasion, when all of the assembled stars were at the top of their game.
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2) James Taylor, “Shower the People you love with love.” After hearing an opera star rattle the roof with her high notes, it’s incredible to shift gears and listen to Mr. Taylor’s easy-going, silken ease. I challenge you to listen to this wonderful song and not be smiling from ear to ear.
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3) Jonas Kaufmann, “Prize Song” from Wagner’s Die Meistersinger. There’s nothing like some Wagner if you want to leave the world behind you for a few minutes, and this aria is especially wonderful and this performance of it is maybe the best I’ve ever heard.
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4) 5) 6) 7) 3 songs from Frank Loesser’s “The Most Happy Fella.” This is one of my all-time favorite musicals, and I was introduced to it in a surprising way….through an episode of “I Love Lucy” in which there’s some sort of screw up with the tickets that they’ve purchased for attending a Broadway show- and they have only two tickets instead of four. Mayhem ensues. But the show they’re going to see, excerpts from which are heard in the background, is “The Most Happy Fella” – and I absolutely fell in love with it and have loved it ever since. I picked out three things from the original cast recording: “Standing on the Corner,” “Big D,” and the title song from the show …. and also a stunning rendition of “My heart is so full of you” sung by baritone Rod Gilfrey. I know everyone talks about Guys and Dolls being Loesser’s masterpiece, but I think this show is it.
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8) “How Beautiful” by Twyla Paris. I had to fold some contemporary Christian music into the mix, and this song has long been a favorite of mine.
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9) 10) “An American Hymn” by Stephen Paulus, and “America the Beautiful” …. sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The first piece is my very favorite modern-day patriotic piece, and I fell in love with it when I heard the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing it live in Salt Lake City last summer. Incredibly beautiful words and music! And if anything got my speed up around the 80 mph, it was their stunning arrangement of “America the Beautiful.” The only bad part about it was that it was in too high a key for me to sing along, without hurting myself. And probably my favorite time listening to this was last night as I was approaching Waukesha, when I saw a patriotically decorated hot air balloon hanging up in the sky. You’d better believe that I fast forwarded to track 9 to listen to this.
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11) “Serbami ognor” from Rossini’s Semiramide, sung by Montserrat Caballe and Shirley Verrett. If there’s anything more exciting than a wonderful opera singer, it’s TWO wonderful opera singers in perfect concert with one another. There is real magic in the way these two voices blend together and also in the way that they seem to feel the music together so flawlessly. Astounding.
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12) “We live on borrowed time” sung by Nancy LaMott. This singer died way too young back in 1995, at the age of 44. and I came to know this particular song when the widow of beloved Carthage prof Larry Hamilton asked me to sing it for her husband’s memorial service. I still return to this song from time to time and appreciate its poignant reminder that time is fleeting.
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13) “King of the Jungle” by Steven Curtis Chapman. This is another contemporary Christian song and it’s probably the closest thing to rock music that I ever listen to . . . and when I’m driving the country roads of Iowa, this song feels SO right. “What I feel is telling me this world’s gone crazy, but what is real says God’s still on His throne. What I need is to remember one thing: that the Lord of the gentle breeze is Lord of the rough and tumble …. and He is the King of the jungle!” Usually by the last couple of refrains I’m beating time on the steering wheel and – I hope I’m saying this correctly – Rockin’ Out. 🙂 (Or at least as much as Gregory Berg ever “rocks out.”)
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14) “Niun me tema” from Verdi’s Otello. This actually ended up in the playlist by mistake, but I’m happy it happened. The singer is actually a former voice student of mine, Trevor Parker, and this was from one of his recitals. Never in a million years would Trevor ever sing this role in its entirety, but something told me that this aria …. sung by Otello at the very end of the opera, once he realizes that his wife Desdemona, whom he just strangled to death, was innocent of infidelity …. would provide Trevor with one of the richest expressive and dramatic opportunities of his life. (I partly chose it because he was a music/english double major.) And I was right! He gave a performance of this aria that cracked my heart in two and the heart of everyone in Siebert Chapel that night.
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15) “Amazing Grace” sung by Judy Collins. There have been a lot of beautiful renditions of this timeless hymn over the years, but I defy you to find one as beautiful as this one.
16) “I’m in love with a girl named Fred” from Once Upon a Mattress. I’m not sure exactly when I first fell in love with this show, a clever re-telling of the story of the Princess and the Pea and the show which first made Carol Burnett a star – but for me this is the musical equivalent of comfort food – plus this particular song is hilariously funny. Every driving CD needs at least a few laughs and this is the song which gave me laughs on this trip.
and finally, 17) This is where it gets a bit absurd. The last track on my Driving Through The Countryside disk featured 45 seconds from the soundtrack to “The Wizard of Oz.” It’s the passage sung by the Munchkins right before the Wicked Witch appears…. “We welcome you to Munchkin Land, tra la la la ….” but the part I like is what follows. Mayor: “From now on, you’ll be history.” Two staffers: “You’ll be hist…. you’ll be hist…. you’ll be History.” Together, in 3-part harmony: “And we will glorify your name! You will be a bust …be a bust …. be a bust …. in the Hall of Fame!” This is blue ribbon writing (there, I said it!) and I nearly broke the ‘rewind’ button on my disk player, so often did I replay this track! No, it’s not Verdi or Wagner … but it’s still really good stuff.
And there you have it …. the CD which kept me company for the miles and miles, the hours and hours, that I drove this weekend. And if I were so inclined, I could have burned a hundred more disks just as fun and inspiring. Isn’t music amazing?!? It’s a bottomless well of wonders, and all we have to do is dip into its waters and draw out one delight after another. And still more amazing is that we’re all delighted by different things, and music offers everything we could possibly wish for …. from Jay-Z to Zinka Milanov. What a gift!
pictured above: Yet another beautiful Iowa scene – and it you look carefully, you’ll see a deer.